| Chemistry 101 |
[May. 25th, 2004|01:18 pm] |
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I didn't realize until now that for every ounce of fossil fuels we burn more than twice as much greenhouse gas is generated. and a lot of hot water too. g, am I becoming an environmentalist or what? |
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| a geopolitical thought of the day |
[May. 25th, 2004|07:02 pm] |
it seems to me that we'll have to negotiate with terrorists. the same way the UK negotiated with the IRA, Israel with the PLO, and Spain with Al-Qaeda. it's just a matter of time before the happy ignorance of power is replaced by a pragmatic ideology of co-existence. the whole shebang: cold war, some fighting, cold war, detente, peace, then, if we are smart and lucky, a victory. the war is going to be long, and we better learn how to use all of our resources, including intelligence, instead of relying on old weapons, developed for the sake of nuclear deterrence. those weapons are not going to deter anybody on the other side. what will? will we, as a society, get the idea now, or will we have to wait another four years before it becomes completely obvious? new tools of war, cooperation, and competition will have to be invented and tested. new alliances created, because the old ones are not working. communism is dead, so militant Islam has become the only ideology available to the discontent in the third world. it took Europe and the US at least a couple of centuries to work out their own versions of capitalism with human face, including a variety of democratic institutions that take care of an occasional grimace. the idea of tolerance, and individual's rights has to be supported by the real progress in the quality of life in the Muslim world. ideological wars take approximately three to four generations to win.
Place your bets, Ladies and Gentlemen. |
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